So, … we mandate ethanol use in the US so we can be energy independent, … then we enter into a technology sharing with Brazil, and get the same technology that Cuba already has, … which is interesting because we’ve mandated more ethanol use than the US can produce, .. so we’re soon gonna have to import.

Luckily, Cuba is ready!

March 15 (Reuters) - Cuba plans to expand its sugarcane-based ethanol output fivefold by 2011 and become an exporter of the biofuels with technical help from Brazil’s cane industry and foreign investment, the Cuban Sugarcane Research Institute (ICIDCA) said on Thursday.

The Caribbean nation has a long tradition of sugarcane and ethanol production but it has fallen into decline with a lack of investment by the cash-strapped communist government, especially after damage caused by hurricanes in recent years.

“Investment interest has led the Cuban government to draw up a plan to modernize the ethanol sector by 2011,” ICIDCA researcher Marianela Cordoves Herrera said at F.O.Licht’s Sugar and Ethanol Brazil international conference in Sao Paulo.

She said that the program will modernize production at 10 existing distilleries in the country and also lays out plans for the construction of eight new distilleries that will be based on Brazil’s flexible production system that can favor sugar or ethanol production.